Government and Economics 2012-2013

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Comparative Government

World Governments is intended to provide students with a basic framework to compare and study governments. The course is divided into three essential and four selective units and is taken in conjunction with Economics. The student must master a minimum of five total outcomes for completion of the course. All Essential Units must be taught. Teachers may want to begin a selective unit before they have finished all the essential units (i.e. begin S01 Authoritarianism before E02 Advanced Democracies). The student will learn basic nomenclature and concepts in addition to undertaking an analysis of challenges faced by different governments around the world. The student generally engages in World Governments during secondary three or secondary four.



The textbook recommended for this course is: Essential of Comparative Politics. O’Neil Patrick, 2003



An outline of Essential and Selective Units is as follows:



Essential Units:



E01-Conceptual Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics

(Chapters 1, 2 and 3)



E02-Advanced Democracies

(Chapters 6 and 7)



E03-Communist/Post-Communist Countries

(Chapter 8)



Selective Units:



S01-Authoritarianism

(Chapter 5)



S02-Less Developed and Newly Industrializing Countries

(Chapter 9)



S03-Final Comparisons



S04-Political Economy

(Chapter 4)




Reading Assignment 1


CNN.com - RSS Channel - App Politics Section

Economics

Economics influences our everyday lives whether we realize it or not. Even our labor-leisure tradeoff, our decision to work or relax, is guided by economic principles.
  • Microeconomics will focus on the fundamentals of microeconomics. This course introduces microeconomic concepts and analysis, supply and demand analysis, theories of the firm and individual behavior, competition and monopoly, and welfare economics. Students will also be introduced to the use of microeconomic applications to address problems in current economic policy throughout the second semester of the year.

  • Macroeconomics will introduce you to issues such as growth, inflation, unemployment, interest rates, exchange rates, technological progress, and budget deficits. The course will provide a framework to address these issues and to study the impact of different policies, such as monetary and fiscal policies, on the aggregate behavior of individuals. These analytical tools will be used to understand the recent experience of the United States and other countries and to address how current policy initiatives affect their macroeconomic performance.